Grand Prix de Miami – Sprint Race: Lando Norris wins a crazy race
Between the rain that fell 45 minutes before the race and a track that dried during the race, the Sprint race was very lively. It was Lando Norris who came out on top, beating his team-mate and a surprising Lewis Hamilton; conversely, Charles Leclerc crashed out on the opening lap.
The weather disrupted the maps during the Sprint race. Indeed, only 45 minutes before the start of the race, a deluge hit Miami 45 minutes before the Sprint race.
” >real tropical rain that has fallen on Miami”
The entirety of the grid setup process therefore took place in the rain, which greatly disrupted the teams’ grid setup. Charles Leclerc was the first driver to set off but the Monegasque could not prevent his car from aquaplaning on the straight.” The decision by Ferrari to start him on intermediates was thus criticized on the radio by Lewis Hamilton.
The formation lap therefore took place behind the safety car. But even under these conditions, it did not prevent errors, with some going straight off at the end of the back straight. The race director then decided to suspend the starting procedure due to a blatant lack of visibility and thus brought out the red flag for a 28-minute break. This was enough for the rain to stop completely, which brought out the humidity in the air thanks to the ambient warmth.
At the time of restarting, all the drivers were on intermediates for two reconnaissance laps behind the safety car. This was enough for the race director to decide that the start would be from a standstill, the usual procedure. The start was clean, without the slightest collision. But Oscar Piastri was able to replicate his start from Jeddah and managed to outpace Kimi Antonelli in the first corner, forcing him off the track. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen also took advantage to gain a place each. The stewards did not even decide to investigate the incident since the Australian was completely on the inside.
On the eleventh of the 18 laps, Yuki Tsunoda was the first driver to switch to medium tires to gather information for tomorrow’s race, which might also take place under similar conditions. On the following lap, Lewis Hamilton, struggling with his intermediate tires, followed suit while he was in sixth place and thus in the points.
This was the catalyst for a new crazy phase in the sprint race. Indeed, Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli also dove into the pit lane, but the two drivers collided when the Dutchman left his pit as the Italian was about to dive into the next box. The stewards did not hesitate to impose a ten-second penalty on him, depriving him of any opportunity to score points in this race, especially as his left front wing was damaged.
But then Oscar Piastri also made his pit stop, and Lando Norris was forced to stay on track because McLaren couldn’t make the two stops consecutively since the gap was too small. But what could have been a disaster for the Briton ultimately gave him the victory because, behind him, Liam Lawson sent Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin into the wall. The safety car had to intervene, allowing Lando Norris to make his own stop and come out just ahead of his teammate.
Lewis Hamilton took advantage of the chaos to climb up to third place while Alex Albon pulled off a great feat by securing points in fourth place.
From our special correspondent in Miami
